Santa Paula High School

History

Founded in 1889 as the Santa Paula Academy, a private school run by the Congregational Church Association. In 1891 the city agreed with the association to convert the Santa Paula Academy to a public school and renamed it Santa Paula High School.

Between 1889 and 1891 were the years of Santa Paula’s first school beyond the elementary grades. The cornerstone was actually laid on April 24, 1889. The school at that time, a private school, was called the Santa Paula Academy. It was built on the site of this plant with money contributed by Wallace L. Hardison, C.H. McKevett, J.M. Sharp, and N.W. Blanchard. Curriculum for the school included Latin, Greek and Roman history, medieval and modern history, English, algebra, trigonometry, chemistry and physics.

In 1891, the state Legislature provided for incorporation of Union High School districts. The Santa Paula Academy was turned over to the state to become a public high school.

In 1905, the land between 6th and 7th streets was bought, but later exchanged for the ground between 5th and 6th street in 1909. There were only 100 students enrolled at Santa Paula High School.

In 1912 the land where the gym is located was bought. There were 125 students and 6 faculty members at this time.

During the year of 1914 , a three story concrete school was built with a concrete shop in the rear for vocational training. Every classroom now had electric clocks. The original frame building was moved to Briggs school (an elementary school).

In 1924, a new study hall unit was added to the east side of the building, parallel to the auditorium unit in the middle.

The football field was opened on newly acquired ground in 1925.

The alumni dedicated the football field as Jones Field in 1929. The library was established in the study hall. The student body numbered about 250 and the faculty 20.

In 1938 construction for the new campus plant began and was completed in the spring of 1939 with Spanish style architecture.

In 1939, most of the current school buildings were built for $329,000 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

The swimming pool and industrial arts building were built in 1950.

Remodeling was complete in the girls’ gym, agriculture building, football field (Jones Field), boys’ gym, cafeteria, administration offices, and health office in 1957. Enrollment at the time consisted of 1,063 students and faculty was 45.

1990 A $5,000,000 School Bond Issue for construction was passed by approximately 85% of the citizens of the Santa Paula Union High School District.

1991 – 1992 was when the Modernization Project I began. Using 2.7 million dollars of State Construction Funding, the girls’ gym and a majority of the classrooms in the Center and Upper Courts were renovated. An elevator, new classroom furniture, computers, and other technological improvements were part of this project.

A 15 classroom Humanities building was completed at a cost of 2.1 million dollars in 1994.

Modernization Project II began in 1994 – 1995. The project consisted of improvements in the cafeteria, converting the former Board room into a food preparation area and snack bar serving lines, constructing a covered eating area outside the cafeteria, converting the staff lounge into a student store, and constructing a band room in the old snack bar area under the cafeteria. The total cost of the project was $700,000.

Santa Paula High School began an expansion project in 1995. The $8-million, five-year construction project was for a new band room, cafeteria, student store and a three story building for 15 classrooms and was finished in 1996.

Their rivalry with the Fillmore High School Flashes is arguably the biggest rivalry in Ventura County. They played their 100th rivalry football game in 2010.

Clubs and activities

SPHS Is home to a number of extracurricular activities some of which include:

Athletics

Santa Paula High School is home to many athletes and is supervised by many coaches and volunteers. The Athletic Director is Danny Guzman.